Posts Tagged ‘Jabula’

After a whirlwind weekend pandering to the birthday girl…friend and spending too much time stuffing my face full of crab, pizza, waffles/french toast and beer and spirits, I’m back. This week is going to be just as crazy as the last with work, so the posts will be a little more abbreviated, but I will try my damndest to post once a day. On to the bullets:

Guys who won’t stop hitting and find themselves nestled on my teams: Robinson Cano, Paul Konerko, Andre Ethier, Jason Heyward (he’s baaaack) and Carlos Gonzalez. All of these guys have been just insane, the first three especially. Konerko, as Collin so delightfully explained, is experiencing a rennaissance, and is leading the majors in homers after hitting four in his last four games. He has 12, and the second-place guys (two of whom are Cano and Ethier, joined by Mark Reynolds and Kelly Johnson) all have nine. Cano leads the majors with a .387 average, Ethier leads the NL in batting average, homers and RBI, on pace for the first NL Triple Crown since Joe “Ducky” Medwick in 1936. No, I didn’t have to even look that up, it’s memorized. I’m scared for myself too.

What does this mean for my teams? Nothing of course. Both of them are middle-of-the-pack right now, thanks too average starts by their eventual offensive leaders (Matt Holliday and Ryan Howard) and inconsistent pitching (damn you, Scott Baker!). After an atrocious 1-20 stretch, Heyward has adjusted and homered in three straight games, then drove in another three runs to bring his numbers back to All-Star levels. Drooool.

David Freese demands your attention. Second only to Ethier in the NL in batting average, the Cardinals’s third baseman was a titan with the stick last week, socking three dingers and driving in 11, batting .500. Hitting behind Albert Pujols, Matt Holliday and the white Jason Heyward makes pitchers so exhausted that they’re probably just throwing junk to Freese. However, those guys will be there all year, so he’ll keep seeing the junk. If you’re thin at third, you have to pick him up. He’s got that starting job all to himself, he’s in that lineup, and he’s hitting, yet mind-bogglingly owned in only 18 percent of Yahoo! leagues. I would pick him up, but having Kung Fu Panda and Ryan Zimmerman with no room on my bench prevents me. You lucky schmucks.

He's enjoying the ride. You won't

It’s that time of year again when you contemplate picking up Scott Hairston. It’s okay, it’s totally natural. He’s got this annoying tendency to pwn bitches for a week or two, then suck for months, then great again. Don’t do it. There are better options out there, especially at outfield, and especially not on the Friars.

Streamer options for tomorrow, quick version: Wade LeBlanc, though he’s already a member of Teamocil, pitching in Petco. I don’t care if he’s facing the Rockies, he’s a Padre, his ERA’s 0.52, he should be on your team if you’re streaming and not Jabula. The D-Train may finally be leaving the station, though Minnesota’s a dangerous club at home. Other random dudes who might give you quality innings: Ian Kennedy, Luke Hochevar and Scott Feldman.

That’s all for today. Hope you kids enjoy the beautiful weather. Oh, wait, it’s thunderstorming and I have to work on a golf cart all afternoon? Wha…wha…why squirrel hate me?

There are two kinds of slumping in fantasy baseball. One is the kind Ethan is experiencing: fluctuation. An example would be a team hitting around .200 without power. Basically fluctuation just says your team is reeking of sweaty gym socks for a certain period of time and there is a clear correlation between poor numbers and a lack of fantasy points. The other kind of struggling is a result of strategic weakness. There is no such correlation in the strategy slumps. Over the last few days, my team has slowly been losing points and has slid from 1st place to 4th. I now trail the surprisingly respectable Jabula by 4.5 points. I’ve maxed out my points in homers and RBIs and have respectable numbers in runs and average. This means hitting will rarely help me gain points, because I already have them. So despite a day when my team hit over .300 with respectable power numbers, I lost points due to weak pitching and continued sloth-like performances on the basepaths. My strategic flaw was trying to specialize in a few categories to ensure domination rather than aiming to merely compete in every category.

Pitching has also become a huge weakness of the Providence Grays. The pitching deficiency falls more into the fluctuation category. Wheels are churning on several trade possibilities. I have less than 5 points in ERA, WHIP and wins. I will probably lose another point or two in saves before all is said and done as well.

With Ellsbury's speed, points in steals should be coming...

Some of these problems will be self-correcting as the season continues by the law of averages and the law of human bodies recovering. I only have 4 points in steals, but assuming Jacoby Ellsbury returns in anything resembling a timely manner, I should stand to gain 3 to 4 additional points in steals. Also, Josh Beckett, John Lackey and Justin Verlander are unlikely candidates to retain ERAs of 5+ and WHIPs of 1.50+. That being said, movement is needed to ensure upwards movement in pitching categories before it becomes too late.

With players like Ellsbury, Beckett and Lackey expected to improve (see Lackey’s start tonight), the fate of the Red Sox (this writer’s favorite baseball team) and the Providence Grays are intertwined this year.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

What better feeling is there than when two great things intersect? The success of both your real-life and fantasy baseball teams is up there with the great combos of all time: Russell and Cousy on the same basketball court, peanut butter and jelly on the same sandwich, Collin and Ethan on the same blog.

Some things just can’t be topped.

Pitchers can only be this bad for so long. This video fails to show the rest of the whiffleball season, after the pitcher learns a nasty slider that starts out 6 feet behind the batter and crosses the plate the moment the child hitting falls to the ground, weeping in fear of ball on bone collision.

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